Study Shows High Street Dissatisfaction Is Pushing Consumers Online

Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - 17:19 by Paul Tissington

A survey conducted by YouGov has revealed that there are a number of reasons for the ever rising number of consumers from the UK choosing to use safe shopping online rather than bricks-and-mortar outlets for their retail needs.

37 per cent of shoppers under the age of 25 said that they tended to be far more impatient when making in-store purchases as a result of the speed and convenience provided by e-commerce sites.

The rise of online shopping has had less of an impact on the patience levels of the over-55s, with less than a fifth of people questioned in this age category describing similar feelings.

When it comes to the benefits of e-commerce, lower prices were cited by almost two-thirds of respondents as being an important factor. 61 per cent said that the sheer variety of options available via the web made it a far more appealing place to shop than the high street.

Analysts also examined the kinds of payment solutions that modern consumers are most eager to see introduced both online and in-store. A quarter of those questioned said that they would like to be able to complete transactions using their fingerprint as the authenticating factor, while 16 per cent said that the scanning of retinas would also be their method of choice for payments.

The study went on to look into how people respond to high street shopping during peak periods of the year, with complaints about the bricks-and-mortar experience tripling in the weeks leading up to Christmas of 2018. This trend in particular is likely to continue, with more shoppers choosing to avoid the crush in-store and instead turn their attentions to the web to save themselves a lot of hassle as well as a lot of cash.